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Bill O’Reilly Calls For Federal Cyber Police!
ABC Good Morning America | MB26

Posted on 07/30/2003 6:00:44 AM PDT by MindBender26

Bill O’Reilly Calls For Federal Cyber Police

FOX News Channel show host, and occasional Conservative Bill O’Reilly called for a Federal Cyber Police on ABC’s Good Morning America today.

In the 7:30 to 8:00 segment of the ratings-challenged morning show, O’Reilly told substitute hostess Elizabeth Vargas, “It’s a crime what happening on the Internet. You have websites misidentifying this young woman in the Kobe Bryant vase. You have criminals selling hard drugs. You have scammers working out of their basements in Terra Haute, knowing that they can promise to sell anything and then not deliver, and no one will do anything about it. We need the Federal Cyber Police, We need the FCP, and we’re going to get it!”

Even though O’Reilly can be considered among the most Conservative of the prime time broadcasters, his call for another federal agency to enforce violations of state laws is not surprising.

O’Reilly, like all broadcasters is threatened by the Internet and what is portends.

There was a time when all television, and therefore (supposedly) all knowledge, all truth and all light, emanated from within 2 miles of either Times Square or Grauman’s Chinese Theater. The coaxial cable that was the physical necessity of the television networks was a one-way wonder. Chet and David, Laurel and Hardy, Luci and Desi were input in New York or Hollywood and they came out in 100 million homes across America. The attitude, and technological limitations were; nothing was needed from North Dakota, North Carolina or Terra Haute.

Satellite feeds changed that. Now, by relaying a TV picture through a satellite 25,000 miles in space, that signal could rain down on homes across America. Now, anyone with a truck-mounted satellite uplink could be the originators of a television network…. and they did. Gadget merchandisers in Clearwater, Florida began to sell via satellite, and the Home Shopping Industry was born. Every affinity group from auto racing aficionados to zebra preservationists seemed to pop-up with their own satellite fed network. And of course, something called CNN became rather profitable.

The Godheads, New York and Hollywood, were worried. But after a few anxious lunches at Le Crique or Spago, Valium usage returned to normal among the entertainment elite. After all, the monster could still be controlled. They would just have to purchase a few of these upstarts, then run the new acquisitions by dispatching some junior executives to a few years of programming purgatory in Peoria. Control would remain firmly in the hands of the Chosen Few.

But they the earth trembled, the mighty towers of power shook and the bankers worried, because something new was born. Like the Biblical kings who feared the birth of the baby Jesus, the entertainment giants were terrified by something new called the Internet.

This Internet could not be controlled. It did not need supposed all knowing, all seeing News Anchors with more hairspray than understanding of the issues. It only needed truth. Certainly there were problems, but after a time, the problems and problem creators seemed to go away.

For example, the misidentification of the supposed victim in the Kobe Bryant case. These complaints are coming after we recently saw wholesale firings because reporters at major newspapers were simply making up stories. If television news is wringing hands about reporters getting it wrong, then why is 60% of the early information at any breaking news story wrong, why were 80% of the news predictions about the war in Iraq wrong, why is Idi Amin still alive (or is he) and why are they so anxious to get someone from the scene of an accident on the air that Howard Stern’s assistants get on with bogus reports all the time!

If Mr. O’Reilly is so worried about scams on the Internet, why does TV allow infomercials for bogus hair regrowth products and cure-any-disease vitamin to permeate the airwaves.

If television is worried about pornography on the Internet, why do we now see gay dating, topless teenagers and some longhaired freak’s penis exposed on every episode of “Elim-i-date.” Here in Orlando, “Elim-i-date” runs at 6:00 PM. Penis shots are just perfect at the dinner hour, no?

Finally, the Internet does police itself. Recently, a seller of forged autographs, one Thomas Paytes of Orange, Virginia, was exposed on e-bay. More than 100 people called his parole officer to complain, and Mr. Paytes is going away again. I wonder when that will happen to the purveyors of “Miracle Hair Formula.”

Mr. O’Reilly would do well to look at the horrible moral and mental misalignment between most Americans and the television bosses before he attacks the Internet.

How about a Television Truth Squad first? I would be willing to volunteer as the Platoon Leader of the Bryant Gumble Detachment. Surely, that would be a full time job.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Constitution/Conservatism; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cyberpolice; internet; oreilly
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1 posted on 07/30/2003 6:00:44 AM PDT by MindBender26
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To: MindBender26
O'Reilly is a moron. His answer to everything is a new Federal program.
2 posted on 07/30/2003 6:02:57 AM PDT by mass55th (i)
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To: MindBender26
Another problem with Mr. O'Reilly's proposal is 80% or more of these shady websites are located outside of the US and therefore outside the jurisdication of the "Cyber Police" be they federal, state or otherwise.
3 posted on 07/30/2003 6:06:19 AM PDT by apillar
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To: mass55th
bet he is still mad about drudge making jokes about his radio ratings
4 posted on 07/30/2003 6:06:31 AM PDT by Pikamax
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To: MindBender26
O'Reilly IS NOT A CONSERVATIVE! He is a narcisistic bunghole with sporadic moments of rightward leanings but mostly leaning middle to left.

5 posted on 07/30/2003 6:07:50 AM PDT by smith288 ('This time I think the Americans are serious. Bush is not like Clinton.' - Uday Hussein)
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To: MindBender26
You have criminals selling hard drugs

What?

6 posted on 07/30/2003 6:07:55 AM PDT by eyespysomething (I don't need no stinkin' tagline!)
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To: MindBender26
Cyberspace is completely controlled by personal responsibility.

Surprised O'Reilly doesn't get it. Or he does get it and is just another another media shill squawking about too much freedom, you know, like Bubba Clinton.
7 posted on 07/30/2003 6:08:41 AM PDT by OpusatFR
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To: MindBender26
O'Reilly's a conservative? Who is this O'Reilly, how many of them are there, and why was I not told there was a conservative one? The only one I've seen is on Foxnews.
8 posted on 07/30/2003 6:11:57 AM PDT by LTCJ
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To: MindBender26
O'reilly expects the world to bend to HIS will.

O'reilly wants censorship of those things O'reilly doesn't like.

O'reilly has annointed himself has the morality God of the nation.

O'reilly refuses to ever interview with that "vicious s. o. b.", Neal Boortz. [snicker]
9 posted on 07/30/2003 6:12:05 AM PDT by TomGuy
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To: Pikamax
"bet he is still mad about drudge making jokes about his radio ratings."

Perhaps, but he's also mad that his poll on the White-only prom didn't come out as he had hoped. He said it was a white supremacy group that had comandeered it, which was a lie.

10 posted on 07/30/2003 6:12:32 AM PDT by mass55th (i)
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To: MindBender26
We need the FCP, and we’re going to get it!”

Sadly, he is right...we are going to get it.

The Internet must begin to police itself and reconsider a few of it's operational areas to stall Fed oversight and regulation for as long as possible.
11 posted on 07/30/2003 6:13:00 AM PDT by mr.pink
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To: MindBender26
FOX News Channel show host, and occasional NON-Conservative Bill O’Reilly
12 posted on 07/30/2003 6:13:03 AM PDT by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: apillar
Another problem with Mr. O'Reilly's proposal is 80% or more of these shady websites are located outside of the US and therefore outside the jurisdication of the "Cyber Police" be they federal, state or otherwise.

Ahh, but no doubt he wants tight controls of what overseas sites we can access. You know, kind of like China.

13 posted on 07/30/2003 6:14:43 AM PDT by Sloth ("I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!" -- Jacobim Mugatu, 'Zoolander')
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To: mr.pink
O'Reilly isn't right; O'Reilly is an idiot. The combined efforts of the FBI and the various state enforcement agencies are more than enough to handle any legal infractions in cyberspace. The problem hasn't been lack of enforcement apparatus, but rather that the Internet is so novel and so mutable that it's been difficult to right up regulatory statutes...

As soon as the growth of the Internet stabilizes and the patterns of usage become routine, all these issues will sort themselves out easily enough.
14 posted on 07/30/2003 6:21:01 AM PDT by AntiGuv (™)
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To: TomGuy
O'Reilly is more of a libertarian if anything.
15 posted on 07/30/2003 6:21:46 AM PDT by MotleyGirl70
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To: MindBender26
Guess O'R wants to be the new internet policeman.....joining the fast food policemen, the ice cream policeman, the smoking police, the SUV police..........aaaaaarrrrrrrgggggggghhhhhhhh
16 posted on 07/30/2003 6:22:58 AM PDT by OldFriend ((Dems inhabit a parallel universe))
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To: TomGuy
The very best part of O'R's radio show is the part where John Gibson substitutes for O'R.
17 posted on 07/30/2003 6:24:18 AM PDT by OldFriend ((Dems inhabit a parallel universe))
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To: MindBender26
Bill doesn't want to pay the punitive income tax BUT he loves thinking up NEW bureaucracies for the FEDS. I like Bill's straight shooting but he is too much at times.
18 posted on 07/30/2003 6:27:20 AM PDT by PISANO
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To: AntiGuv
I was not saying I agreed with O'Reilly's opinion....I was saying that I believe Fed oversight is inevitable, and I stand by that prediction.

There is simply too much money at stake for the Feds not to want to grab their share.
19 posted on 07/30/2003 6:28:11 AM PDT by mr.pink
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To: MindBender26
O'Reilly only has one agenda, the "O'Reillly" agenda. He goes for the sensational, the lurid and what fills his bank account. If that collects a few brownie points from conservatives, thats just more money flowing into his books sales, commentary, etc.
20 posted on 07/30/2003 6:28:47 AM PDT by hgro
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